MACBIO Updates

Nuku’alofa (Enviro News): Local marine stakeholders have been invited to celebrate the launch of new, world-class information which will help Tonga’s ocean planning, at an event on Thursday, April 26 here in Nuku’alofa.

The event was jointly organized by the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications (MEIDECC) and the Marine and Coastal Biodiversity Management in Pacific Island Countries (MACBIO) Project. The work was also supported by the Government of Tonga, especially the Ministries of Fisheries and Lands and Natural Resources and international partner, Oceans 5.

The ‘Marine Bioregions of Tonga’ Report was launched by the Honorable Minister of MEIDECC, Mr Poasi Mataele Tei. The Minister said “This work will help us achieve one of Tonga’s key international commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Specifically, we can now identify and implement an ecologically representative network of marine protected areas in Tonga using the results of this research.”

MEIDECC Chief Executive Officer, Mr Paula Ma’u said, “Tonga’s coastal and open ocean environment is important to our people – in terms of food, jobs and also culturally and biologically.”

Dr Fernandes from the MACBIO project at IUCN said, “The scientific analysis and expert input that led to the development of these marine bioregions for Tonga is absolutely world-class and, for the Pacific, the first report of its kind ever launched.”

In 2015, for the first time in Tongan history, three Ministries submitted a joint paper to Cabinet to initiate marine spatial planning for the nation. These were the Ministry of MEIDECC, of Lands and Natural Resources (MLNR) and the, then, Ministry for Agriculture, Food, Forests and Fisheries (MAFFF). To ensure this, the Government of Tonga has established a cross-Ministerial technical working group (the Oceans 7) with the Department of Environment as the focal point.

The Oceans 7 includes the three pioneering ministries plus the Ministry for Finance and National Planning, Ministry for Internal Affairs, Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Infrastructure (Marine Division) and also the Tonga Ports Authority.

Dr Tu’ikolongahua Halafihi, CEO of Fisheries, thanked the Oceans 7 and Tonga’s marine experts who reviewed draft marine bioregions and finalized them. He thanked BMUB’s (now BMU’s) International Climate Fund and Oceans 5 funding support and the MACBIO team (including IUCN, GIZ and SPREP) for their technical support.

Marine spatial planning is underway now, or starting, in many Pacific Island countries. This planning aims, amongst other things, to achieve the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Aichi Target 11 which states, in part, that at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas are conserved through ecologically representative and well-connected systems of protected areas.

However, means for countries, who have signed on to the CBD, to achieve an ecologically representative system of marine protected areas is missing. There are not perfect data which describe the distribution and abundance of every marine habitat and species in the Pacific. And certainly not at a scale that is useful for national planning in the ocean. Bioregionalisation, or the classification of the marine environment into spatial units that host similar biota, can serve to provide spatially explicit surrogates of biodiversity for marine conservation and management.

Existing marine bioregionalisations however, are at a scale that is too broad for national governments in the Pacific to use. Often whole countries are encompassed in just one or two bioregions (or ecoregions).

This report presents, for the first time, marine bioregions across the Southwest Pacific at a scale, which can be used nationally, as a basis for the systematic identification of an ecologically representative system of marine protected areas.

Bioregions, of course, are just one of the important data layers in identifying an ecologically representative system of marine protected areas. To be truly ecologically representative and comprehensive, one must also consider all available information about habitats, species and ecological processes. In addition, socio-economic and cultural considerations are vital in the spatial planning process. This report is focused upon one important, but only one, input to marine spatial planning: the development of marine bioregions.

To take account of differing types and resolution of data, two separate bioregionalisations were developed; firstly, for the deepwater environments and secondly for reef-associated environments. For the deepwater, thirty, mainly physical, environmental variables were assessed to be adequately comprehensive and reliable to be included in the analysis. These data were allocated to over 140 000 grid cells of 20×20 km across the Southwest Pacific. K-means and then hierarchical cluster analyses were then conducted to identify groups of analytical units that contained similar environmental conditions. The number of clusters was determined by examining the dendrogram and setting a similarity value that aligned with a natural break in similarity.

Draft deepwater bioregions for the Southwest Pacific including MACBIO countries (red solid line). The different coloured areas represent different bioregions. Because the colour palette available to us was not sufficient, some different bioregions may appear to be the same colour.

For the second bioregionalisation, reef-associated datasets of more than 200 fish, coral and other invertebrate species were collated from multiple data providers who sampled over 6500 sites. We combined these datasets, which were quality-checked for taxonomic consistency and normalised, resulting in more than 800 species that could be used in further analysis. All these species data and seven independent environmental datasets were then allocated to over 45 000 grid cells of 9×9 km across the SW Pacific. Next, the probability of observing these species was predicted, using the environmental variables, for grid cells within the unsurveyed reef-associated habitats. Hierarchical cluster analysis was then applied to the reef-associated datasets to deliver clusters of grid cells with high similarity.

The final analytical steps, applied to all the outputs, were to refine the resulting clusters using manual spatial processing and to describe each cluster to deliver the draft bioregions. This work resulted in 262 draft deepwater marine bioregions and 102 draft reef-associated bioregions across the SW Pacific.

People’s expertise in the Pacific marine environment extends beyond the available datasets. An important, subsequent, non-analytical step, not described in this report, will be to review and refine the resultant draft bioregions with marine experts in the respective Pacific Island countries and territories prior to their use in planning.

The Government is charting a new course for blue planning in Kiribati – together with key stakeholders who have operations or interests in the marine environment of Kiritimati Island, including the private sector and communities.

Jointly, these stakeholders have identified more than 40 different uses of the marine environment, ranging from bone and giant trevally sports fishing, diving, snorkeling, bird watching, island tour, fishing for aquarium trade, long and pristine beaches, natural salt production in the ponds, manta ray and dolphin aggregation, closed areas for conservation, etc.

While remarkable on its own, these uses and services provide a large economic value to Kiritimati, and Kiribati as a whole. The estimated economic value of national marine ecosystem services amounts to AUD$ 400 Million (2014 baseline study), with marine tourism at around AUD$4.3 million per year.

In order to maintain and step up this great value, design innovative strategies to address conflicts between uses and to maximize benefits in the marine environment, Government spearheads the marine spatial planning approach in Kiribati. The process of marine spatial planning will inform the Government on the assets in its blue economy, and to visualize and properly allocate space for different uses while avoiding conflicts in the marine environment. This holistic and sustainable approach can not only help Kiribati to achieve its own development priorities, but also meet its commitments under the Framework for Pacific Oceanscape, Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14) on Life Below Water and increase the resilience of the marine environment in regards to climate change and disaster risks.

In this light, the Government particularly recommended Tarawa Lagoon and Kiritimati Island for marine spatial planning. Given the potential of marine tourism in Kiritimati Island, and aligning with the 20 year Government Vision (KV 20) and the Line and Phoenix Island Integrated Development Strategy 2016-2036, marine spatial planning will be one of the important underlying processes. This process will also contribute to achieving the objectives of KV20, particularly maximizing economic benefits from the marine tourism sector through effective planning.

The Ministry of Fisheries & Marine Resources Development, as well as the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agricultural Development and Ministry of Line and Phoenix Island Development (including Tourism sub-division) are leading this process in Kiritimati Island, with technical and financial support provided by the German Ministry of Environment through the regional Marine and Coastal Biodiversity Management in the Pacific Islands project (MACBIO), jointly implemented by GIZ, IUCN and SPREP.

The Solomon Islands’ marine environment is in the global centre of biodiversity. That means it has more marine plants and marine animals per unit area than anywhere else in the world. This highly diverse marine environment sustains goods and services that benefit Solomon Islanders and others and that are valued at billions of dollars a year.

However, even with this amazing seascape, we don’t have the comprehensive information bout the biodiversity in the marine environment. When we know completely our marine environment, we can carefully plan to protect the marine areas, ensuring that these areas are ecologically represented versus areas that are special and unique.

A workshop was conducted on 28th February 2018 in Honiara to describe the marine environment using the bioregion concept. Participants learnt the concept of bioregions and then reviewed the draft reef-associated and deepwater bioregions. A key message during the workshop was no bioregion is more important than the other, but the entire marine environment is important.

“There is a risk in not knowing what we have, not knowing our entire marine environment can impact in how we plan our ocean space, having comprehensive infromation on our marine environment can assist our Government to plan our ocean space to achieve social, economic and environmental objectives.”

Over 30 experts kindly donated their time coming from different organisations and Provinces to describe the entire marine environment. The participants were able to revise and successfully described 26 deep water bioregions and 18 reef associated bioregions for Solomon Islands.

This workshop was supported by the Government of The Solomon Islands and the MACBIO project (funded by the IKI program of BMUB, implemented by GIZ with technical support from IUCN and in close collaboration with SPREP). If you would like more information, contact Ms Lysa Wini-Simeon, MACBIO Project Liaison Officer, Environment and Conservation Division, lysa.wini@gmail.com; 747 3384.

The yearly Pacific GIS & RS User Conference is the largest annual opportunity for Pacific Island Countries and other stakeholders to share experiences and knowledge in the development and use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) tools and products.

This year’s conference from 27th to 30 November 2017 was dedicated to Innovative GeoSpatial Solutions to Pacific Island Challenges.

Among the many attendants from all over the South Pacific were also four participants supported by the MACBIO project. William Ganileo from Vanuatu, Malia Pale and Sione Sunia from Tonga as well as Tentao Takaaio from Kiribati used the chance to learn from and collaborate with experts that are involved in innovation on GIS and Remote Sensing.

They also shared their first hand insights from applying these technologies in their fields of work. Mr Ganileo presented a case study from the Port Vila Urban Development (PVUDP) on integrating GIS tools into Environmental Impact Assessment and expanding the Contractor’s Environmental and Social Management Plan (CESMP) in projects for economic development. Tonga’s participants explained the application of geospatial information for monitoring and spatial analysis of the status of biodiversity in the Fanga’uta Lagoon catchments.

How GIS can be effectively applied for Marine Spatial Planning in Pacific Island Countries in the context of the MACBIO project, showed Philipp Gassner, MACBIO, highlighting the importance of a process understanding and user involvement.

Throughout the conference the importance of open source data and tools was emphasized. To increase the use of these tools, capacity building is key for the region. Thus, Giovanni Lepani, MACBIO told the success story of the QBook – a QGIS Cookbook for the Pacific GIS Community.

As part of its objective to support the sustainable planning and management of marine and coastal biodiversity in Pacific Island States, MACBIO assists partner governments in their efforts to strengthen GIS capacity and address the demand for license-free spatial data tools in the region.

Based on the open-source application QGIS, the QBook is a free, dynamic, Moodle-based, on and offline training hub. This QGIS “Cookbook” provides easy access to GIS training materials, data and resources for GIS beginners and practitioners that are interested to increase their capacities and share their experience.

Through close collaboration with SPC-GSD, USP and a growing range of partner organisations the QBook Moodle aims to provide a conduit for a variety of spatial data applications, such as mapping and monitoring the status of natural resources and their uses, e.g. as part of marine and terrestrial spatial planning.

The youths will attend various pre-COP events but will save their choreography and the official premier screening of the seven documentaries for the high-level side event Pacific Voices in Unison at the Fijian Pavilion in Bonn on November 8, 2017. The event will be officiated by Fiji’s Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Hon. Mereseini Vuniwaqa.

A training in real-world data collection using Global Positioning System (GPS) and data analysis using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was completed last week for staff of the Samoa Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) who deal with Protected Area management.

“The collection of accurate spatial data, coupled with the ability to import, analyse and manage it, is critical for monitoring and reporting on our environment at the national level, and for regional and international commitments” said Mr Ryan Wright, Lead Trainer and Spatial Planning Officer at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).

“This training will provide MNRE staff with the specific skillsets for a range of activities, including integrated coastal zone planning, accurately mapping their protected areas and updating their national protected area dataset. These efforts will place Samoa in a strong position to achieve global, regional and national targets and priorities,” said Amanda Wheatley, Ecosystems and Biodiversity Officer at SPREP.

Participants received field training to apply theoretical knowledge about GPS, capturing data for monitoring of three nature reserves in the Apia area, including boundaries, important features and associated assets.

During the next session participants went back to the office where they were taught the theory behind GIS and learnt how to import, style, label and manage the important spatial data they captured in the field using their GPS devices. Participants created their own workspaces, reviewed their collected data and created a spatial accurate protected area, calculated it’s area and then created professional maps for use in reports.

“Understanding GIS is crucial in our current efforts by assessing and validating ecological representation of the existing protected area programmes in Samoa. Such technology is valuable to visualize and present suitable data to optimise our work with key areas that are very significant to conservation and protection of our natural resources such as marine and terrestrial biodiversity. Using GIS and available GIS tools can accelerate our confidence in planning surveys and research and challenges in the field for data collection. We aim to collect and validate the existing information on protected areas both terrestrial and marine to achieve the highest rate of biodiversity conservation in Samoa,” said Czarina Iese-Stowers of the MNRE.

The training held on 28 September was made possible through assistance from SPREPs Programme of Support for Protected Areas and input from Ryan Wright, Spatial Planning Officer for the MACBIO project.

Speakers recognized the comparatively high values of previously unrecognized marine ecosystem services, in some cases exceeding on an annual basis the value of national exports. Joshua Wycliffe, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment in Fiji, underlined the importance of healthy coastal habitats for the development of sustainable marine ecotourism, that provides more than FJD 1 billion per year to Fiji’s economy. In combination with values linked to coastal protection from erosion, commercial, subsistence and artisanal fishing, as well as the absorption of carbon dioxide by seagrass and mangrove areas, the assessed marine services and values amount in the case of Fiji to more than FJD 2.5 billion per year.

Taouea Reiher, Director of Environment in Kiribati underlined the importance to recognize these values and to manage them in an integrated manner. She emphasized the need to ensure that these diverse benefits are maximized and sustained rather than risking losses caused by impacts of competing marine resource uses.

In many cases a growing recognition of these values has become the basis for inter-sectoral marine spatial planning efforts. Mr Paula Ma’u, CEO of the Ministry of Environment in Tonga, underlined Tonga’s high-level recognition that terrestrial and marine spatial planning are key efforts to guide and inform decision-making processes supporting Tonga’s development policies and plans.

Examples from Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Tonga highlighted government efforts to establish high level inter-sectoral ocean governance arrangements, leading to the formal establishment of the “Ocean 12” Steering Committee in the Solomon Islands, as well as the “Ocean 7” Steering Group in Tonga. In April 2017 Vanuatu’s inter-sectoral Oceans Committee developed the first national Ocean Policy among Pacific Island Countries.

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is a global initiative focused on “making nature’s values visible”. Its principal objective is to mainstream the values of biodiversity and ecosystem services into decision-making at all levels. It aims to achieve this goal by following a structured approach to valuation that helps decision-makers recognize the wide range of benefits provided by ecosystems and biodiversity, demonstrate their values in economic terms and, where appropriate, capture those values in decision-making.

The TEEB Secretariat provides a platform for TEEB-inspired country studies that are financed and managed by governments or other development partners. A TEEB country study identifies the ecosystem services that are vital to meeting the country’s policy priorities and makes recommendations on how these services can be integrated into policies. These recommendations depending on the country context can include policies for poverty alleviation, subsidy reform, land use management, protected area management, securing livelihoods, investment in natural infrastructure restoration and national accounting to include natural capital.

TEEB studies can help countries answer these questions:

What is the natural capital in my country and what is driving change?

Do we measure and understand our natural capital?

To what extent are the values of nature integrated into decision-making?

What are the issues that need policy attention?

What are the policy tools and decision options that offer solutions?

Now, five TEEB-inspired country studies from the South Pacific are available:

The living resources of the Pacific Ocean are part of the region’s rich natural capital. Marine and coastal ecosystems provide benefits for all people in and beyond the region. These benefits are called ecosystem services and include a broad range of values linking the environment with development and human well-being.

Yet, the natural capital of the ocean often remains invisible. Truly recognizing the value of such resources can help to highlight their importance and prevent their unnecessary loss. The MACBIO project provides technical support to the governments of Fiji, Kiribati, SolomonIslands, Tonga and Vanuatu in identifying and highlighting the values of marine and coastal resources and their ecosystem services. Once values are more visible, governments and stakeholders can plan and manage resources more sustainably, and maintain economic and social benefits of marine and coastal biodiversity in the medium and long term.

The Solomon Islands’ marine environment is in the global center of biodiversity. That means it has more marine plants and marine animals per unit area than anywhere else in the world. This highly diverse marine environment sustains goods and services that benefit Solomon Islanders and others and that are valued at billions of dollars a year.

However, even within this amazing seascape, some places are just a bit more special, just a bit more unique than the surrounding seas. And, in planning decisions, permitting decisions and Environmental Impact Assessments, it is useful to have an overview of which parts of the Solomon Islands’ ocean is relatively special and/or unique.

“The Solomon Islands has national and international obligations regarding, for example, turtle, dugong, whales and other marine mammals. But there is no comprehensive dataset available for the Solomon Islands as to which habitats are most important for these species. So we decided to ask the experts.”

A workshop was conducted by the Government of the Solomon Islands on 26th July 2017 at the Mendana Hotel to collate information held by the maritime brains trust of the country. Ms Rosalie Masu, Deputy-Director of Inshore Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources said,

“There is a lot of knowledge held by experts in the Solomon Islands about our marine environment. And, more, they also are aware of research and reports which have been produced that help describe special or unique marine areas of the Solomon Islands. So we asked them to share this information.”

Over 30 experts kindly donated their time coming from over 15 different organisations to advise the government about which marine places they knew to be special or unique in some way. Their first estimate is that the Solomons has 66 special, unique marine areas inshore and 16 offshore. They have provided additional source materials to follow-up and a report will be prepared collating their expert information and all other available information on the sites they identified.

This workshop was supported by the Government of The Solomon Islands and the MACBIO project (funded by the IKI program of BMUB, implemented by GIZ with technical support from IUCN and in close collaboration with SPREP). If you would like more information, contact Ms Lysa Wini-Simeon, MACBIO Project Liaison Officer, Environment and Conservation Division, lysa.wini@gmail.com; 747 3384.

This question is now answered in a Blue Solution about Smartphone Apps in marine resource management on the Panorama Platform.

Managing marine resources heavily relies on data, while globally and in many settings in Pacific Island countries a lack thereof remains. Manual, paper based reporting system are widely used, even though these are typically burdensome, resource intensive and error-prone. Furthermore, data often remains locked away in spreadsheets and results are not measurable, visible or accessible.

In this context, the MACBIO project that assists its partners in effective approaches of marine management, was requested in 2015 to support data collection on locally managed marine areas in Fiji – in particular with the design and development of open-source mobile solutions. Thorough research and testing of existing platforms and proven examples identified Open Data Kit (ODK), as suitable free and fully open source solution – especially in combination with KoBo Toolkit.

Beyond this, MACBIO aims at collaborating with national and regional stakeholders to develop lasting solutions and standards for the use of open-source mobile applications in support of sustainable marine resource management and conservation.

Find here the full documentation of smartphone app use and development for (marine) resource management:

The Solomon Islands’ ocean is worth billions of dollars every year. Over two and a half billion dollars according to a report launched on 27th July 2017. This matches the value of 1/3 of Solomon Islands’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It’s a lot! Some of these values we see in the marketplace, for example, tourism brings in over $119 million per year and tuna taken from the Solomon Islands’ waters is worth over $1.6 billion.

More importantly, much of the value is “hidden”; it is NOT revealed in the market system. For example, many people in the Solomon Islands rely on marine resources that they harvest for food – this is valued at more than $442 million per year. Imagine if those resources were lost and if we would need to replace that food somehow?

The Solomon Islands’ marine ecosystems hosts one of the world’s largest tuna fisheries and a finite marine resource. The tuna fishery alone is valued at 1.66 billion a year.

Other hidden values, also not revealed in normal market transactions, include the value of marine ecosystems in coastal protection. For the Solomon Islands, our coastal ecosystem provide over $48 million in value per year by protecting coastal communities and infrastructure from storms and cyclone damage; not that they prevent the damage – but can reduce the damage that would otherwise occur.

A detailed report assessing these values has been provided to the Government of the Solomon Islands. The research was undertaken in collaboration between researchers and government partners.

In support of the launched Report, Director for the Environment and Conservation Division, Mr Joe Horokou, remarked that ‘our marine ecosystems are truly valuable, providing vast benefits for our people, therefore, recognising the value of its resources will prevent their un-necessary loss and enable Government and stakeholders to plan and manage these resources more sustainably’. He further added “We need to know and appreciate the importance of the ‘marine environment’ for our wellbeing and development. These marine resources are ‘finite’ and thus needs to be ‘sustainably managed’.

Dr Leanne Fernandes, Senior Project Advisor, MACBIO, presented the final report on the marine ecosystem service valuation for the Solomon Islands to Supervising Permanent Secretary on 27 July 2017.

The Supervising Permanent Secretary thanked the MACBIO project for partnering with the Government to produce this report and noted how important it will be to protect the entire range of goods and services that the marine environment of the Solomon Islands provides to her people.

The report was produced with the support of the Government of The Solomon Islands and the MACBIO project (funded by the IKI program of BMUB, implemented by GIZ with technical support from IUCN and in close collaboration with SPREP).

Vanuatu’s ocean is worth billions of Vatu every year. Over 5.7 billion Vatu, in fact. This is about 1/3 of government budget expenditure in 2015 (which was Vt16 billion). It’s a lot!!!! Some of these values we see in the marketplace, for example, tourism brings in over Vt 1 billion per year and tuna taken from Vanuatu’s waters is worth over Vt 2 billion.

More importantly, much of the value is “hidden”; it is NOT revealed in the market system. For example, many people in Vanuatu rely on marine resources that they harvest, for food –this is valued at more than Vt 635 million per year. Imagine if those resources were lost and if we would need to replace that food somehow?

Other hidden values, also not revealed in normal market transactions, include the value of marine ecosystems in coastal protection. For Vanuatu, our coastal ecosystem provide over Vt 2 billion by protecting coastal communities and infrastructure from storms and cyclone damage –not that they prevent the damage -but can reduce the damage that would otherwise occur.

Vanuatu’s marine ecosystems also contribute to the world’s efforts to store carbon. By storing carbon, marine ecosystems prevent increased in climate change impacts. In Vanuatu, this service is worth over Vt 460 million annually.

A detailed report assessing these values has been provided to the Government of Vanuatu. The research was undertaken in a collaboration between researchers and government partners.

Mr Toney Tevi, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and External Trade, said, “The government can use the results, for example, to:

build the value of subsistence fishing into decision-making

better integrate marine biodiversity values into planning by all government agencies

inform the development of the new policies

assess the relative pros and cons of alternative development and/or management actions

contribute to national planning

inform environmental impact assessments,

review the adequacy of fines and penalties for marine environmental crime, and

Dr Leanne Fernandes, Senior Project Advisor, MACBIO presents the final report on the marine ecosystem service valuation for Vanuatu to Mr Toney Tevi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and External Tradeand Mr Henry Worek, Director of Ports and Harbour, on 20.7.2017.

Mr Henry Worek, the Director of Ports and Harbour, thanked the MACBIO project for partnering with the Government to produce this report and noted how important it will be for Vanuatu to protect the entire range of goods and services that the marine environment of Vanuatu provides to her people.

The report was produced with the support of the Government of Vanuatu and the MACBIO project (funded by the IKI program of BMUB, implemented by GIZ with technical support from IUCN and in close collaboration with SPREP).

Vanuatu is leading the Pacific, in terms of ocean management. It is the first country in the region to have an integrated, holistic Ocean Policy. This Policy allows for cross-sectoral coordination and collaboration to maintain and enhance the cultural, social and economic values that we, the people of Vanuatu, derive from our ocean.

The Director-General, Ministry of Climate Change, Meteorology, Environment, Energy and Disaster Risk Management said, “An integral, novel and innovative part of our Ocean Policy is the development of a nation-wide Marine Spatial Plan for our ocean. This Marine Spatial Plan will identify areas where certain developments should be promoted, areas where certain uses should be controlled, it will separate conflicting uses and identify special areas that need protection from extractive uses. The Marine Spatial Plan will also help uphold and support traditional marine resource management systems.”

Acting Director-General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and External Trade said, “In the launching of the Ocean Policy in 2016, the Acting Prime Minister committed to a Marine Spatial Plan, which includes a network of Marine Protected Areas, by 2020. These commitments are also reflected in Vanuatu’s Voluntary Commitments at the United Nations Ocean Conference.” Recently, the government invited ocean experts, users and managers to help lay one of the first, and the most important, foundation stones for Vanuatu’s proposed Marine Spatial Plan.

At the workshop, held at the Climate Change Conference Room on Thursday 20th July, government and non-government experts helped to decide what types of ocean zones Vanuatu wants to have in its Marine Spatial Plan.

Ocean zones, in the sea, will work the same as zoning on land. On land, decisions are made about which part of the land should be a road, which should be an airport, a rubbish dump, an industrial area, a town, a protected area. These kinds of decisions are often codified into integrated and spatial land-use and zoning plans.

98% of the country of Vanuatu is sea, and yet, so far, integrated spatial planning for our ocean is missing. We are an ocean nation. Our future lies in our marine resources and so cross-sectoral forward planning for their sustainable use is imperative. And a standardised, understandable and sensible set of ocean zones is a big part of this planning exercise.

Discussions at the workshop guided the government’s future decisions about what kinds of uses should be allowed, and where, in our ocean so that not just we, but our children, and our children’s children can continue to derive benefits of the marine bounty of Vanuatu.

“The Ocean Conference has changed our relationship with the ocean. Henceforth none can say they were not aware of the harm humanity has done to the ocean’s health. We are now working around the world to restore a relationship of balance and respect towards the ocean”

said the President of the UN General Assembly Peter Thomson, Fiji, at the closing of the UN Ocean Conference. The high-level Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 5 to 9 June 2017 was co-hosted by the Governments of Fiji & Sweden.

The 193 Member States of the United Nations unanimously agreed to a set of measures that will begin the reversal of the decline of the ocean’s health as the five-day Ocean Conference concluded. The outcome document, together with more than 1,300 commitments to action, marks a breakthrough in the global approach to the management and conservation of the ocean. Recognizing that the wellbeing of present and future generations is inextricably linked to the health and productivity of the ocean, countries collectively agreed in the Call to Action“to act decisively and urgently, convinced that our collective action will make a meaningful difference to our people, to our planet and to our prosperity.”(Read more)

That the second highest number of commitments comes from the South Pacific, highlights not only the importance of the ocean to Pacific Island Countries, but also their commitment to “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development” (SDG14).

Oceanographic schooner TARA

Thus, Pacific Island countries also raised their voice at the Pacific Voices for a Global Ocean Challenge Conference in Suva, Fiji, 8 to 9 June 2017, as external regional side event to the UN Ocean Conference – joined withe oceanographic schooner ‘’TARA’’ that berthed in Suva as part of its two-year environmental survey across the Pacific Ocean. Linking Suva with New York City, Fiji shared 10 Ocean Messages with the region and the world:

On the 13-15 October 2015, the Department of Fisheries and the Civil Society Forum of Tonga convened a nation-wide “lessons learned” conference on marine Special Management Areas in Ha’apai, Tonga, supported by the MACBIO Project.

There were 65 participants including community representative from across all the island groups.

The main findings, challenges and successes, as well as lessons learned are presented in this video and the according report, which is published in Tongan to be feedback to the involved communities. The report also includes an executive summary in English.

Data and technical input is important to ensure that correct information on Tonga’s oceans and marine environment is available, the Chief Executive Officer for MEIDECC, Mr Paula Ma’u told a workshop on the marine environment in Nuku’alofa on the 19th of April.

While opening the ‘National Expert Workshop On The Establishment of Biological regions to describe Tonga’s Marine Environment’ at the Moulton Hall, Mr Mau’s said the workshop was an important one for Tonga, as a signatory to the Convention of Biodiversity (CBD).

Also attending were representatives from the Civil Society of Tonga, Ports Authority, PUMA, private sector and Non Government Organisations like VEPA Vava’u.

Discussions focused on reviewing Tonga’s marine spatial planning process, review status of report on Tonga’s special and unique marine areas (SUMA), a look into the process used to describe Tonga’s marine environment and results, review of the deep-water marine bio-region boundaries and descriptions and the review of the reef-associated bioregion boundaries and descriptions.

Lead facilitator Dr Leanne Fernades of the MACBIO project said the workshop was important for Tonga, especially in the sharing of data and information that would help in ensuring there is the availability of correct data and information on the country’s marine environment.

Local MACBIO project co-ordinator in Tonga, Ms Eileen Fonua said the workshop hopes to give participants the opportunity to examine the preliminary marine bioregions and consider the accuracy of the preliminary report.

Workshop participants. Photo: R2R MEDIA

“The resulting proposed marine bioregions for Tonga can be used to inform the national process aiming to identify and select ecologically representative and well connected systems of marine protected areas as well as inform decisions about the location of other types of ocean management areas,” she said.

Ofﬁcially launched by the Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Climate Change, Ham Lini, this National Policy is the Government’s policy statement for the management of its sovereign water and marine ecosystems through to 2030. The policy has been developed by the Ocean Sub-Committee of the National Committee for Maritime Boundary Delimitation. This Sub-Committee was also tasked to undertake discussions and consultations with marine stakeholders nationally and with other related initiatives regionally and globally on the Oceans Policy.

Minister of lands Mr Ralph Regenvanu presenting UN Ambassador with gift and message for UN Oceans conference in June

It is also acknowledged that this Ocean Policy contributes to Vanuatu’s efforts to implement Sustainable Development Goal 14 on Oceans Policy, to build marine ecosystem resilience to climate change and natural disasters and commitments under the Convention of Biological Diversity. The National Ocean Policy outlines the overcharging structure for the management of the ocean is framed around the Nakamal (traditional house):

The foundation is an ecosystem- based approach to management as envisaged and implemented by our forefathers using traditional marine resource management systems;

Upon the foundation are three pillars; the multidimensional value of our ocean; the integration across uses, across boundaries, across sectors, across governance structures and, thirdly, our resilient and intrinsic ocean culture;

The supporting beam across the Nakamal is the overarching institutional arrangements; and

The thatched roof is emblematic of the sectoral and cross-sectoral policy actions that will protect the Nakamal.

Director maritime affairs Mr Tony Tevi’s speech

Speeches came from Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office, Johnson Naviti, Mr. Odo Tevi from the Department of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation, Vanuatu’s Ambassador to the United Nations. The occasion was witnessed by secondary school students, government workers, NGO representatives and members of the public. There was public lunch followed by Career Forum and awareness program for students and public.

QBook – A “Cookbook” For The Pacific Spatial Planning Community

To sustainably manage and protect their marine biodiversity, Pacific Island States have an appetite for open source geographic information systems and related planning tools. A new “cookbook” provides a free training hub and community of practice for spatial planning practitioners in the Pacific.

The diverse goods and services that are supplied by marine and coastal ecosystems include not only the provision of fish and other seafood, caught on the high seas, near coral reefs or raised in coastal aquaculture farms. The ocean is also an important source of medicinal, ornamental and genetic resources. In addition, marine ecosystem services also include often overlooked processes, e.g. climate regulation, coastal protection, erosion prevention and even air purification. Marine and coastal habitats represent nurseries for economically important species and provide in addition cultural services.

The Pacific is rich in natural resources that need to be carefully managed to maintain the livelihood of island communities; Photo: Jan H. Steffen / GIZ

Recent efforts to value these marine ecosystem goods and services more holistically have assisted for example decision-makers in Pacific Island Countries to highlight the need to balance economic, social and ecological objectives, in order to sustainably use and maintain the Pacific’s rich biodiversity. To achieve this, marine spatial planning has turned out to be an essential step in the process.

The regional IKI project on “Marine and Coastal Biodiversity Management in Pacific Island Countries” (MACBIO) assists government and civil society partners in their efforts to assess the economics of marine ecosystems and biodiversity (TEEB), to encourage and implement inter-sectoral marine spatial planning and to document effective management approaches.

Under the MACBIO project, the so-called “QBook” was developed in 2015 as a training platform for users of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Pacific Island Countries and was launched in March 2016. Based on the license-free open-source application Quantum GIS or QGIS, the platform offers training materials, country-specific data and other resources to strengthen GIS capacity and to address the demand for license-free spatial data tools in the region.

The QBook connects students and lecturers, regional agencies, NGOs, government departments and the private sector and allows beginning as well as experienced GIS practitioners to find and share solutions and “recipes” for a wide range of spatial data analysis and management situations.

It offers regional and national solutions and scenarios and makes them relevant and relatable to its users. For example, a user from the Fisheries Department in the Solomon Islands, involved in the national marine spatial planning process can use the platform to learn about mapping tools used by Lands Departments in other Pacific Island States. Users from Vanuatu can now share their experience and scenarios from existing planning efforts with users in Tonga and Kiribati through the QBook.

Vanuatu is one example of Pacific Island States that started a national marine spatial planning process using GIS tools; Photo: Jan H. Steffen / GIZ

A different scenario contributed by a public works department was the challenge to map unscheduled power outages. Another user suggested designing a spatial database of all power line utilities and their age and state of maintenance. This does not only provide logistic advantages, saving the government and private sector time and resources, but also offers a systematic approach to mapping and addressing line damages in case of natural disasters, such as cyclones, which are frequent in the region.

An NGO working in Fiji presented a question on how communities can best be empowered to map their own natural resources. Lecturers and students of the University of the South Pacific responded with a community-based mapping guide that has now been integrated and reaches a much wider audience through the QBook platform.

The diversity of these user cases highlights the need and potential for constructive exchanges across government sectors on planning challenges and solutions. Through close collaboration with a growing range of partner organisations and an increasing number of users, the QBook aims to provide a lively platform for all users of spatial data applications throughout the Pacific.

Kiribati has one of the largest exclusive economic zones in the world, covering 3.5 million km2 of ocean. Planning and resource management on this scale requires suitable GIS capacity; Photo: Jan H. Steffen / GIZ

This regional approach became recently the latest solution on the Panorama platform, a partnership initiative to document and promote examples of inspiring, replicable solutions across a range of conservation and development topics.

Based on the open-source application QGIS, the QBook is a free, dynamic, Moodle-based, on and offline GIS training hub and marketplace for the Pacific. This QGIS “Cookbook” provides easy access to GIS training materials, data and resources for regional GIS beginners & practitioners.

Through close collaboration with SPC-GSD, USP and a growing range of partner organisations the QBook Moodle aims to provide a conduit for a variety of spatial data applications, such as mapping and monitoring the status of natural resources and their uses, e.g. in marine and terrestrial spatial planning.

As part of its objective to support the sustainable planning and management of marine and coastal biodiversity in Pacific Island States, MACBIO assists partner governments in their efforts to strengthen GIS capacity and address the demand for license-free spatial data tools in the region. This regional approach became now the latest solution on the Panorama platform, a partnership initiative to document and promote examples of inspiring, replicable solutions across a range of conservation and development topics.

Fiji is blessed with a diverse and rich marine environment that is worth billions of dollars to the economy and its values are deeply embedded in our culture. Fiji is also fortunate in that our country can rely on a wide range of practitioners and experts who work on the marine environment and understand many aspects of its biological diversity. However, to date, the first attempt was made to describe the diversity of Fiji’s marine environment.

Through the Departments of Environment and Fisheries in particular the Fiji Government, is working closely with other relevant stakeholders and has initiated a medium term process to deliver on its commitment to 30% marine protected areas by 2020. Mr George Madden, Director of Fisheries, stated, “as part of this process, we realised that, to ensure the future of our ocean, we needed to describe and classify the entire marine environment of Fiji and not focus only on special or unique marine areas”.

Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Local Government, Housing and Environment, Joshua Wycliffe agreed that “we understand the interconnectedness of our marine ecosystems. To secure the benefits that Fijians derive from our seas, we must include, in our planning, a description of the entire marine environment of Fiji. In this way we can establish an ecologically representative network of marine protected areas for our country.”

The Fijian Government is being supported by the MACBIO (Marine and Coastal Biodiversity Management in Pacific Island Countries) project and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in this effort.

This collaboration is now at the point where the Government draws upon the collective marine expertise of Fiji. The workshop reviewed, validated and revised the newly established preliminary descriptions and boundaries of marine biological regions within Fiji’s exclusive economic zone. The output from the workshop will be one of many contributions to Fiji’s efforts to protect and manage its marine resource sustainably and effectively.

With its independence in 1980, Vanuatu set sail to manage its vast area of nearly 700 000 km2 of ocean.

During the voyage the country recognized the increasing need to coordinate and manage marine resource use, ranging from subsistence and commercial fisheries, over marine transport, deep sea mineral exploration to tourism and marine biodiversity conservation.

In 2013, the regional MACBIO project got on board, to assist the Vanuatu Government in its efforts to value its rich marine ecosystem services, as well as towards developing an inaugural Ocean Policy. The policy was endorsed by the Council of Ministers earlier this year, as a holistic, integrated framework for sustainable management of Vanuatu’s ocean.

Last week, on the 23.11.2016, Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and External Trade, Hon. Bruno Tau Lengkone used the opportunity of the Sustainable Ocean Initiative Workshop, to thank the CBD Secretariat and CSIRO for their facilitation of the workshop, as well as for the contributions by the MACBIO project and its ongoing support towards the implementation of the Ocean Policy.

The project, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Environment, jointly implemented by SPREP, IUCN and GIZ, is looking forward to further assist the Government of Vanuatu in the coming years. The national focus on integrated ocean management will be supported through multi-sectoral marine spatial planning and the documentation of current effective marine resource management approaches that seek to balance ecological, economic and social objectives.

“What if we could identify the best local and regional solutions, and promote them for learning at a global level?”

This is the approach of the new Panorama platform, a partnership initiative to document and promote examples of inspiring, replicable solutions across a range of conservation and development topics. These topics include “Blue Solutions”. Such marine and coastal solutions are also at the heart of the MACBIO project. Through its learning site approach, the project supports national governments to document effective approaches to sustainable marine resource conservation and management. This aims to share tried and tested concepts and instruments more widely throughout partner countries and the Oceania region.

As panorama is an excellent platform for cross-sectoral learning and inspiration, the first solution contributed by MACBIO comes from what the community of Navakavu has learned. Navakavu found a practical way of marking their No-take Area and want to let the rest of Fiji and the world know, how they did it.

Fiji’s marine resources and their services to Fiji’s people are worth more than FJD 2.5 billion per year. These values are partially derived from tourism and commercial fishing – values we see in the marketplace. But the larger contribution to these values comes from subsistence fishing, coastal protection and carbon storage – values not reflected in the marketplace, but none-the-less extremely important to Fiji.

Achieving 30% MPAs will also underline Fiji’s dedication to fulfill one of its international commitments to the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), namely, Aichi Target 11, which states, amongst other things: “By 2020, at least ……10 per cent of coastal and marine areas …..are conserved through effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well-connected systems of protected areas…….”

But, aside from ecologically representative areas, the most important parts of Fiji’s marine environment should be considered when planning for marine protected areas.

The Government of Fiji is very committed to ensuring Fiji’s resilience to the economic challenges posed by climatic change. The Departments of Environment and Fisheries are working together to define Fiji’s marine priority areas for consideration in their ocean-wide planning for marine protected areas. These Departments convened the national workshop on 19 July 2016, to gather this advice from Fiji’s marine biodiversity experts.

The membership agreement was signed by GIZ Climate Change Programme Director Dr. Wulf Killmann and the Chair of the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation, Taholo Kami on July 15, 2016 in Nadi, Fiji.

Members of the PIRT declare their commitment to promote, facilitate and monitor progress regarding the Framework for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas in the Pacific Island Region 2014 – 2020 and to abide by the principles for nature conservation in the Pacific Islands region through close collaboration and partnership.

The PIRT network includes regional agencies, international NGO’s and development partners that are committed to support governments and civil society in Pacific Island countries in their efforts to sustainably manage and conserve the regions biodiversity.

On the 13-15 October 2015, the Department of Fisheries and the Civil Society Forum of Tonga convened a nation-wide “lessons learned” conference on marine Special Management Areas in Ha’apai, Tonga, supported by the MACBIO Project.

There were 65 participants including community representative from across all the island groups.

The main findings, challenges and successes, as well as lessons learned are presented in this report, which is published in Tongan to be feedback to the involved communities. The report also includes an executive summary in English.